Realist Loading the Piper Way

[P3D <DavidH8083@xxxxxxx>]

So far:
> I assume you are trimming the leader ?
> Older 35mm film used to have a nice 4" leader which these >days is down to
1.5" or so. You need more to clear the pickup >for the perforations.

Again, why trim the leader and why clean the pickup for the perforations?
Having the leader shorter works better because you pass the film under the
sprocket guard and engage it to the perforations while you are seeing what is
going on.
    
>    Being a old leica owner this becomes a habit :-)

That what BobH has said too... but I still don't see any benefit for doing it
for the Realist.  -- George
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I am going to quote from the revered Charlie Piper's Technical Notes; it's
Installment #62. I don't think he will mind, and it will serve as another
advertisement for his fabulous work, which you all should have a copy of. 

"Set the rewind button to Advance.  Pull up the rewind knob.  Rotate the
sprocket either way until it stops.  While pressing the wind release button,
turn the sprocket five teeth to the left. (This will be two teeth past the
white dot, if your camera has one -- some early Realists don't.) Rotate the
take-up spool so the slot is up. Insert the film cassette in its niche and
push-in the rewind knob. Draw the film tongue to the right, UNDER THE
SPROCKET GUARD,  until it engages the sprocket. Keep your finger on the film
so it doesn't skip on the teeth. When the sprocket has been driven to the
right five teeth, it will click to a stop. Press the wind release button and
feed just enough more film through the sprocket so you can get hold of the
tongue to force it into the slot in the spool. Advance the wind knob enough
to take up the slack loop. Replace the back cover.  Advance the film until it
stops, and note the rewind knob is turning. You now want to run off TWO
frames. Hold the release button only until the counter moves. After running
off the two frames set the counter appropriately and start shooting."
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I personally use a slight variation on this to suit my own fumble fingers.
But whatever method you use, if you are absolutely consistent in your
loading, the sprocket drive will allow you to change films in the middle of a
roll.  This is a great convenience when I find, for instance, that I am half
way through a roll of daylight emulsion and and need to change to tungsten. I
can rewind the daylight, noting the position of the frame counter (don't wind
the tongue all the way into the cassette!), load up the tungsten and shoot.
 Then later I can pull the Tungsten roll and load up the partially shot
daylight and advance EXACTLY to where I left off with out any over lap or the
loss of a frame.  

Love those Realist sprocket drives.

P.S.  The Piper Technical Notes (originally published in installments in
SCSC's 3-D News) are available directly from Mr. Piper, very inexpensively. I
note that his address and info is listed in one of this group's data files,
but here it is again:  Charles A. Piper, 26810 Fond Du Lac Road, Palos Verdes
Peninsula, CA 90274  (310) 378-3294.  Last time I looked, he was only charge
$6 or $7 for a full set of his invaluable notes. Xeroxing and mailing fees
may have raised this a bit.


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